Murder, romance, and deception highlight the noire-tale of Contrast. These scenes play out in shadow on the walls of a world set in an early twentieth century European-style city. These twisting stories already happened, their silhouettes revealing the past. Contrast's protagonist shifts between the colorful 3D world of cobblestone streets into the 2D world of shadows to change the past.

Contrast Trailer

The push and pull of light and shadow takes two different routes. Some sections of Contrast are dedicated to platforming, where the heroine must leap from shadow to shadow in order to cross gaps and navigate the world. Other sections take a more puzzle-oriented route where she moves spotlights, rides on the shadow of a lit cigarette, or leaps onto the barrel of a silhouetted gun to modify the events of the past.

Light and shadow isn't a new concept in gaming, but the style Contrast executes makes it special. The heroine wanders amongst street lamps and billboards in three-dimensions, but the charm of the game is in the ability to "shift" into the shadows on a two-dimensional plane. She can't shift into every shadow, but gameplay requires this transition. The world walks a line between desaturation and overly-lit, so the bright lights of the theater or moody lights in a jazz club really bring the world to life.


From an early look, Contrast's best moments come through interacting with silhouettes. This means that conversations and dramatic whisperings from the past play out in the darkness, including moving characters that appear larger than life. Whether it's moving entire pieces of the scene by dragging them away in the 3D light world, or leaping onto a woman's shoe as she pulls up her stocking in order to access new areas as she moves, the interaction is stellar. As shadows are amplified in size upon walls, the heroine is often tiny in comparison to the events she's experiencing. She might fit in the palm of a moving hand during the representation of an argument.

Some puzzles require the placement of spotlights, to angle shadows properly through a platforming course. Others require the manipulation of luggage carts, elevators, and chandeliers to open up pathways. While the game is relatively linear, there are certainly multiple ways to approach any situation based on how you adjust lighting and decide to leap from silhouette to silhouette.


Contrast also offers a series of optional puzzles where you can collect hidden, floating diamonds. The fluctuating shadows behind these challenges represent a more complex use of light and darkness. In one case, a series of caf? umbrellas which opened and closed on timers, made precision key to nabbing the prize.

Contrast has months to go before release, so it's still in an early stage of development. With about five hours of content, Compulsion Games plans to bring the experience to downloadable platforms sometime next winter.

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